#16 Understanding and Managing Multiple Ad Accounts

?Understanding and Managing Multiple Ad Accounts in Meta Business Manager

As businesses expand their digital marketing efforts, managing multiple ad accounts becomes essential, especially for agencies, large companies, or businesses that run campaigns for different products, regions, or clients. Meta Business Manager (formerly Facebook Business Manager) offers robust tools that allow you to manage several ad accounts in one centralized place. Understanding how to create, organize, and manage multiple ad accounts can streamline your advertising operations, improve efficiency, and ensure that each campaign is optimized for success.

This article will explain the benefits of managing multiple ad accounts, how to create and organize them within Meta Business Manager, and provide best practices for keeping your ad operations running smoothly.

?Why Manage Multiple Ad Accounts?

There are several reasons why businesses or agencies might need to manage multiple ad accounts:

1. Client Management: For digital marketing agencies or freelancers managing campaigns for several clients, it is crucial to have separate ad accounts for each client. This ensures that budgets, performance metrics, and billing are distinct and easy to track.

2. Different Business Divisions: Large businesses with multiple products, services, or geographic locations often create separate ad accounts to manage campaigns for each division. This allows each business segment to have its own dedicated budget and performance tracking.

3. Financial Control: Keeping ad spend for different campaigns or clients in separate accounts allows for better financial control. Separate billing and payment methods can be used for each account, which simplifies budgeting and accounting processes.

4. Team Collaboration: When working with multiple teams, departments, or partners, assigning each group its own ad account helps manage permissions and control who has access to which assets. This reduces the risk of mistakes or unauthorized changes.

5. Targeting Optimization: Different ad accounts can be used to create and test distinct targeting strategies for different audiences. For instance, one account could be focused on reaching a younger audience on Instagram, while another focuses on an older demographic on Facebook.

By managing multiple ad accounts, businesses and agencies can compartmentalize their advertising efforts, streamline operations, and improve overall efficiency.

?How to Set Up and Manage Multiple Ad Accounts in Meta Business Manager

Managing multiple ad accounts in Meta Business Manager requires careful organization and a good understanding of how Meta’s platform works. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create, manage, and optimize multiple ad accounts.

?Step 1: Create a Meta Business Manager Account

Before you can manage multiple ad accounts, you need to set up a Meta Business Manager account. If you haven’t already created one, go to business.facebook.com and follow the steps to set up your Business Manager profile. You’ll need to provide some basic information about your business, such as the business name, email address, and Facebook Page association.

Once the Business Manager account is set up, you can start adding and managing ad accounts.

?Step 2: Create or Add Multiple Ad Accounts

Once you’re inside Meta Business Manager, you can create new ad accounts or add existing ones. Here’s how:

1. Go to Business Settings: In the Meta Business Manager dashboard, click on Business Settings in the left-hand menu.

2. Select Ad Accounts: In the Business Settings section, click on Ad Accounts under the Accounts tab.

3. Add or Create an Ad Account: You will see options to either:

???- Add an Ad Account: This allows you to add an existing ad account if you’re already managing ads on another platform.

???- Request Access to an Ad Account: This is useful if you’re managing ads for a client who owns the ad account but needs to give you access.

???- Create a New Ad Account: This option allows you to create a new ad account from scratch for your business or client.

When creating a new ad account, you’ll need to provide details like the account name, time zone, currency, and the associated business or client.

?Step 3: Assign Roles and Permissions for Each Ad Account

When managing multiple ad accounts, it’s important to assign roles and permissions to team members carefully. Meta Business Manager allows you to assign specific roles for each ad account to control who can manage campaigns, access billing, or view performance reports.

The available roles are:

- Ad Account Admin: Full control over the ad account, including managing campaigns, billing, and permissions. Admins can also add or remove other users from the ad account.

- Ad Account Advertiser: This role allows users to create and manage ads but does not give access to billing information or user management.

- Ad Account Analyst: This role allows users to view ad performance and reports but does not grant permission to create or edit ads.

Assign roles based on your team’s needs. For example, a digital strategist might need admin access, while a junior marketer might only need advertiser or analyst access.

?Step 4: Set Up Billing for Each Ad Account

To manage ad spend effectively, you need to set up a billing method for each ad account. Meta Business Manager allows you to use different payment methods for each account, which is useful when managing multiple clients or business divisions.

To set up billing:

1. Go to Payment Settings under Business Settings.

2. Select the ad account for which you want to configure payment.

3. Add a payment method (credit card, PayPal, or direct debit) and set the desired billing threshold. Meta will charge the account once the ad spend reaches this threshold or at the end of the monthly billing cycle.

For agencies managing multiple clients, it’s essential to keep each client’s billing information separate. This ensures that ad spend for one client does not affect another and makes invoicing straightforward.

?Step 5: Organize Ad Accounts by Clients or Projects

With multiple ad accounts in Meta Business Manager, organization is key. One best practice is to group ad accounts by client or project to keep things manageable. Here’s how you can stay organized:

- Naming Convention: Use a consistent naming convention for your ad accounts to easily identify which account belongs to which client or business division. For example, you could name ad accounts by client name and project (e.g., “Client A – Holiday Campaign” or “Client B – Product Launch”).

- Use Labels: Meta allows you to create labels for organizing assets within Business Manager. Use labels to group ad accounts, campaigns, and assets by category, project, or client.

?Step 6: Monitor and Track Ad Account Performance

Meta Business Manager provides robust tools to monitor and track the performance of each ad account. From the Ads Manager dashboard, you can access key metrics such as impressions, click-through rates (CTR), cost per click (CPC), and return on ad spend (ROAS) for each ad account.

By regularly monitoring performance, you can:

- Identify high-performing campaigns and allocate more budget to them.

- Optimize underperforming campaigns by adjusting targeting, creatives, or bidding strategies.

- Generate reports to share with clients or stakeholders.

Meta’s reporting tools also allow you to create custom reports for each ad account, which is essential for managing multiple clients or business divisions. You can download these reports or set up automated reports to be sent to clients on a regular basis.

?Step 7: Manage Access to Multiple Ad Accounts

As your business grows, you may need to collaborate with different teams or agencies on ad campaigns. Meta Business Manager allows you to control who has access to each ad account. You can assign roles and permissions based on the tasks that each person or team needs to perform.

To manage access effectively:

- Limit access based on responsibilities: Only give team members access to the ad accounts they are directly working on. For example, a designer may not need access to billing, while a media buyer does.

- Regularly review user access: Make sure to audit access regularly and remove users who no longer need it. This helps to maintain security and avoid unauthorized changes to campaigns.

?Best Practices for Managing Multiple Ad Accounts

Managing multiple ad accounts can be complex, especially if you’re handling campaigns for several clients or projects. Here are some best practices to streamline the process and improve efficiency:

1. Use Automated Reporting: Set up automated reports to keep track of ad performance across multiple accounts. This will save you time and ensure that you stay on top of performance metrics without having to log in to each account manually.

2. Monitor Billing and Payment: Regularly check payment methods and billing settings for each ad account to ensure no payment issues arise. Consider adding backup payment methods to avoid interruptions if a payment fails.

3. Leverage Pixel Data Across Accounts: Use Meta’s Pixel and Conversions API to track user interactions across multiple accounts. This allows you to collect valuable data for retargeting and optimization.

4. Set Campaign Naming Conventions: Establish a consistent naming convention for campaigns and ad sets across accounts. This makes it easier to track performance and ensures that everyone on the team can quickly find relevant campaigns.

5. Audit User Access: Regularly audit the roles and permissions assigned to each ad account to ensure that only the necessary team members have access to sensitive information, such as billing details.

6. Organize Assets with Labels: Take advantage of Meta’s labeling feature to organize campaigns, ad accounts, and audiences by client, project, or objective. This will help keep everything organized and easy to manage.

?Conclusion

Managing multiple ad accounts in Meta Business Manager can help businesses and agencies streamline their advertising operations, keep client work organized, and optimize ad performance across multiple campaigns. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can easily set up, organize, and manage multiple ad accounts while maintaining control over budgets, performance, and user permissions.

Using best practices like automated reporting, organized naming conventions, and regular audits of user access will ensure?that your advertising efforts remain efficient and secure.